Strindberg in an Hour

Instability marked the life of August Strindberg. One of eleven children --- only seven survived to adulthood --- Strindberg's mother died when he was thirteen years old, just a few years after his father declared bankruptcy. Abandoning Sweden for greater Europe, he eventually achieved infamy for his play, Miss Julie, which critics attacked as immoral and overtly sexual. But to Strindberg, he was simply expressing a natural truth: Life is chaos and chaos is at the heart of all art. In that same spirit, Strindberg went on to write some of the greatest masterpieces of modern theater: The Stronger, A Dream Play, and The Ghost Sonata. Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of Strindberg and the plays he wrote. Read Strindberg in an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play! The book features: - Strindberg in an Hour, the main essay of the book - Strindberg In a Minute, a snapshot chronology - A complete listing of Strindberg¿s work - A list of Strindberg¿s contemporaries in all fields - Excerpts from Strindberg¿s significant works - An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader - An index of the main essay. Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek masters to contemporary writers, and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short book places the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context. Carl R. Mueller was a professor in the Department of Theater at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1967 until his death in 2008. There he directed and taught theater history, criticism, dramatic literature, and playwriting. A translator for more than forty years, he translated and published works by Büchner, Brecht, Wedekind, Hauptmann, Hofmannsthal, and Hebbel, to name a few. For Smith and Kraus he translated individual volumes of plays by Schnitzler, Strindberg, Pirandello, Kleist, Goethe, and Wedekind and all four major Greek playwrights. His translations have been performed in every English-speaking country and have appeared on BBC-TV.